


More Than Just The Sidekick

by Merayi



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Dark Past, Death, Gentleness, Heroes & Heroines, Jedi Code (Star Wars), Languages, Memories, Millennium Falcon - Freeform, Rebellion, Regret, Resistance, Shyriiwook, The Force, Tributes, Uncle Chewbacca, Wookiees (Star Wars), gentle giant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-27 10:33:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18737275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merayi/pseuds/Merayi
Summary: A tribute to Peter Mayhew, 1944-2019.Rey reflects on her friendship with the first Wookiee she ever met.





	More Than Just The Sidekick

Growing up on Jakku - which was pretty much the middle of nowhere - Rey had seen a lot of odd characters and bizarre species. She had heard a lot of languages and seen a lot of ways of communicating. She had been in the company, almost exclusively, of people who didn’t want to be found and people too poor to find somewhere else. On that dry, desert planet, she had never seen a Wookiee.

She had heard about them, sure, heard the pilots talk about dealing with them out in the galaxy: those big, hairy beasts with their coarse roars and coarser fur and berserker rages. You couldn’t even think about cheating them or stealing from them, not if you wanted to live to tell the tale... with all your limbs still attached.

 

_You must unlearn what you have learned._

 

The first time she actually saw a Wookiee with her own eyes was when Chewbacca came through the door of the _Falcon_ a step behind Han Solo. He had sniffed them out within seconds, and he lifted the grating under which she and Finn were hiding like it was a sheet of flimsi. It had terrified her, that raw strength.

It figured that the first time she ever left nowhere was the first time she met someone important. Two someones important, in fact. She had thought three, but then Finn wasn’t really a Rebellion hero. Not then, at any rate. Not yet. Not when he said he was.

Either way, when Han and Chewbacca had found the _Falcon_ \- and the two fugitives on it - Rey had been more concerned with a) the fact that they had been caught and b) the two faces looking down at them were not a platoon of stormtroopers and c) there was still a blaster in her face and d) Han Solo the Smuggler was asking where the pilot was when she was clearly RIGHT. THERE.

She hadn’t known exactly what Chewbacca had said when he growled at her, but it was easy enough to guess from the context. The Wookiee had not been pleased with them.

From then, everything got a bit complicated. As if it hadn’t been already.

 

_I am one with the Force and the Force is with me._

 

At some point, in her nonexistent free time, Rey had taught herself Shyriiwook, with a lot of help from Chewbacca and Han. She had an ear for languages - she had to, trading on Jakku, where there wasn’t any sort of formal language of trade - and she was a fast learner.

Rey cheated for the first little bit, wearing a translating ear-piece, so that she could understand Chewbacca enough to learn. Through that time, he had been incredibly patient with her, speaking slowly and clearly and using simple vocabulary until she got it. Eventually, she could understand him nearly as fluently as Han could, even without the ear-piece. But, obviously, much like Chewbacca’s physiology didn’t allow him to speak Basic, her vocal chords couldn’t copy the complex growls, roars, and chirps that made up the primary language of Kashyyyk.

Han had told her it was possible to do, so she had tried her very hardest. That was until she heard Han cracking with laughter when she tried to tell Chewbacca that she was grateful for him teaching her, and the Wookiee gently explained that she really didn’t manage to say anything but gibberish. She had punched Han in the shoulder for that.

 

_In a dark place, we are; a little more knowledge lights our way._

 

Looking back on it, Rey hadn’t given Chewbacca anywhere near enough credit. No matter what was happening or what the emergency was or what needed to be done, he had been there in the background, steady and sure as a furry boulder. It was easy to overlook him, to take him for granted. He had never judged anyone or complained about anything, just bore it with honour and determination and courage. He was selfless in his loyalty. He always gave everything to the task at hand, following plans that he had no interest in conceiving himself, always keeping the _Falcon_ ’s engine warm in case Han ever needed a quick exit. He was stoic in the face of everything from blasterfire to bad news. There were few in the Rebellion like him.

It had been only recently that Rey learned about Chewbacca’s history. To know he had been a slave of the Empire put his unwavering dedication to the Rebellion in new light. Her heart had broken hearing even the briefest summary of what the powerful Wookiee had had to endure. She hadn't known he had had a mate and child. 

Chewbacca had never spoken about it. It had been Leia who had let knowledge of his past slip, after having a little of some of the ‘tamer’ cortyg brandy Han had nicked.

 

_On many long journeys have I gone. And, waited, too, for others to return from journeys of their own. Some return; some are broken; some come back so different only their names remain._

 

Despite the cruelty he had faced, despite his occasional temper, Chewbacca was gentle. He was aware of his mighty size and strength, especially with his comparatively fragile Human friends. He never sparred too hard in the training ring, unless asked to specifically. He let the flyboys like Poe test their strength on him and never made them look too foolish when they lost.

Two generations of children born on Rebellion bases and on Alliance planets called him ‘uncle’. He would let the children hide in his long fur and climb on his shoulders and wrap around his legs. He would make games to teach them how to survive in various environments and planets, which was a crucial skill for young Rebels to master. He never complained when they pulled his fur too hard or poked their chubby, little fingers into his ear holes by mistake.

 

_Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force._

 

It was only with him gone that Rey realized how much she had loved him, too. He had been more of a father figure to her than Han or Luke, protecting her, teaching her, traveling with her. Even in the middle of his grief, Chewbacca had taught her how to fly the _Falcon_ on the journey to find Luke. Rey had never considered how hard that must have been for him, to look over at the pilot’s seat and not see his best friend, but just some nothing scavenger from a nowhere planet who had shaken up his whole galaxy yet again.

He had even helped her get to the Supremacy to confront Kylo Ren. It must have hurt him for Rey to see redemption in his best friend’s murderer, even if he was family.

 

_To be a Jedi is to face Truth and choose. Give off light or give off darkness. Be a candle or the night._

 

 

Rey cursed all the times she had taken the gentle Wookiee for granted. There was so much now that she wanted to say to him, so much she wanted to apologize for, so much she wanted to ask him.

Sitting alone in the cockpit of the _Falcon_ , Rey tucked her knees to her chest and watched the star field beyond, swirling and blurring through the tears clouding her eyes. The little points of light seemed so insignificant against the void of space, but they held the key to life. Each one represented a star system, many planets ringing a hearth-like warmth, many peoples and cultures living throughout a galaxy so much bigger than she had ever imagined.

That big galaxy felt hollow.

Han was gone. Luke was gone. So many of the Resistance were gone. Now Chewbacca was gone, too. She didn’t know how Leia was still going, how she hadn’t broken down in grief. Rey felt like she was unmoored in a storm, swept from the rock she didn’t even know she had been clinging to until she started drowning.

 

_No one’s ever really gone._

 

Barely speaking aloud, Rey mouthed the words she had read in the ancient Jedi Texts, the last words of the Jedi Code. She didn’t know if she believed them yet, if she could swear an oath by them, but she hoped. She knew that, in this War generations had fought, she would face grief again and again. She hoped desperately that her friends and family were there, just behind the veil, waiting for her to join them.

 

_“There is no Death; there is only the Force.”_

 


End file.
